


Out of the Woods

by illyriantremors



Series: ACOMAF Rhys POV Standalone Chapters [8]
Category: A Court of Thorns and Roses Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: F/M, Rhys POV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-27
Updated: 2016-07-27
Packaged: 2018-07-27 01:32:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7598224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/illyriantremors/pseuds/illyriantremors
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rhys POV of Chapter 47 of ACOMAF when he and Feyre are out training in the woods outside the Illyrian camps and Lucien tries to take Feyre back to the Spring Court.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Out of the Woods

**Author's Note:**

> Update as of 4/19/17: This fic has been updated! I have gone back to the beginning of ACOMAF and started the entire book from Rhys's POV. You can find this specific chapter new and updated _[HERE](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10671303/chapters/23621697)_. :)

The scent of rain was refreshing, the cold shower I had needed all night as I tried in vain to sleep. My mind had been too preoccupied with Feyre to bother risking the nightmares and the dreams for another night. She was simply everywhere to me now.

Feyre had always taken up space in my mind, but after what had happened between us in the Court of Nightmares and most especially after Starfall, she consumed me. Waking, sleeping, with her or apart, always my thoughts were of Feyre. Of my…

I swallowed the word and the guilt that went with it. I should have told her on Starfall. The moment was perfect and the way she looked at me, held my hand as she drew in the dust and smiled for me, she was the very radiance of everything I felt for her and I thought that just maybe that meant she felt it too.

But then she asked to dance and I wasn’t going to refuse her. I would have held back nothing from her that night no matter what it was had she only asked me. So telling her would have to wait, which meant this trek through the woods just to train her was going to drive me mad by the time the sun went down later in the day.

Even now as I trailed her several feet back lugging all of our equipment, I could barely think of little else but the woman in front me. Every step I took, she took another and it felt like my future was in front of me and moving further away at the same time. She kept her mental shields well up, but I could sense her overall mood was pensive, even a tad brooding.

It was only when I’d caught up to her that I realized she had stopped. Her shields were beginning to crack ever so slightly as her thoughts struggled, just enough to let me feel a little more. Feyre turned to look at me and I could feel the tension rolling around in her head as she took me in, her eyes trailing over my wings with questions until she met my gaze.

Silently, I lifted an eyebrow. If she had questions, I would answer. I would answer anything for her. I could practically see the words forming in her mind and I pressed against the bond without breaking her down, revealing how desperate I was to know every inch of her. If only she knew how badly I was begging her to just put the words on her lips and tell me what she wanted from me.

What I didn’t expect was the hand she held up and the small flicker of a smile. I caught a flash of fire in her heart and concern for my safety. It was hard not to laugh, so I instead bowed lowed for her to go on and play with her fire, wondering if she realized the double meaning in my gesture as there was only one person on this earth I would ever bow for beyond my crown.

Feyre turned her back on me, rolling her eyes at my bravado as she went and a fire of my own lit up inside of me. She was such a wicked playful thing sometimes. I was suddenly back on that seat in the Court of Nightmares, my fingertips brushing the inside of her thigh as she ground against me and I felt how moist she was for me. To feel that. Fuck, to taste that.

I could practically feel Feyre blushing even from so many feet away as I licked along the bond between us in my mind. I sent the caress intently, amusement flowing with it as she tried not to let it show how much she was beginning to squirm inside.

She had just paused in a clearing and turned to face me, either to begin her magic or to tell me off - I hoped for the later - when it happened.

A bolt of dread went through me as I watched a group of four men dressed in colors of a court I had come to hate surround her. And with them at the center standing next to Feyre was Lucien.

A million decisions ran through my mind on the spot, each overriding the last and vying for position. My instinct was to winnow us away immediately all risk of my magic being tracked be damned. But one look at Feyre and I knew I couldn’t do it. She could be my mate if she wanted to, but she hadn’t decided that yet. This decision right here, right now was hers alone and until I knew what she wanted, I would let her handle Lucien.

“We’ve been hunting for you for over two months,” Lucien said. He sounded so relieved, like he thought this was going to be easy. I prayed he was wrong, trying not to panic.

“How did you find me?” Feyre asked. It was too short for me to gauge how she felt and with Lucien suddenly present, her mental shields had snapped firmly back in to place.

“Someone tipped us off you’d been out here, but it was luck that we caught your scent on the wind, and-” Lucien paused as Feyre retreated from his approach and even at this distance, I could tell he was confused. “We need to get out of here. Tamlin’s been - he hasn’t been himself. I’ll take you right to-”

“No,” Feyre said.

My heart skipped a beat. Though she whispered the word, it was firm and binding. A declaration. A choice.

And Lucien didn’t want to believe it.

“Feyre,” he said carefully. “Let’s go home.”

Home.

Feyre had never called the Night Court her home. Much as I despised Tamlin, he had made a home for Feyre once, a home I suddenly realized she might miss, one that she never felt she had with me. Sorrow began to overtake my heart as I saw what might happen just now. It would break my heart to see her return to the Spring Court with Lucien and even now standing there just thinking about the possibility, I felt like I would die if she chose it. But if she did, if she… left me, I would find a way to be okay with it. I had to for her.

But Feyre would never stop delighting and surprising me at every turn.

“That stopped being my home the day you let him lock me up inside of it,” Feyre said.

It was all I could do to focus as happiness and relief flooded me at Feyre’s refusal. I knew in that moment, perhaps more clearly than ever before now that I could look in on her from the outside, that Feyre felt something for me, enough to choose me in some capacity.

My desire to find out exactly how she would choose me weighed my feet down as I dug into the ground and prepared for Lucien’s move that would prompt me to take off.

“It was a mistake,” Lucien retorted. “We all made mistakes. He’s sorry - more sorry than you realize. So am I.”

Lucien tried to near Feyre once more, but again she edged away, only she was running out of room. I could sense the tension in her rising as she turned the arrow in her hands directly on Lucien. His eyes widened.

“Put the arrow down,” Lucien said and the way he said it, so condescending, as if he could control her just like Tamlin did with some simple twist of words. But Feyre - my Feyre - held her ground.

“Don’t. Touch. Me.”

“You don’t understand the mess we’re in, Feyre. We - I need you home. Now.”

The next few seconds were a blur. I winnowed into the air towards the spot where Feyre had been to find she was already gone on her own cloud of smoke. Lucien stumbled back and I rode around on Feyre’s trail until I found her safely out of the reach of Lucien and his sentinels.

And it was intoxicating.

Feyre’s magic hung electric in the air between us. It didn’t matter if I had been there or not to save her, she’d saved herself and she knew it. She stood proud, a fierce glare in her eyes aimed straight at Lucien as he righted himself to search for Feyre, only to find me standing by her side with power dripping off of me - off of us. I would make her my queen, this warrior at my side, if she would let me.

Lucien had clearly not been prepared for such a sight. His entire body seized as he took me in, myself now dressed without my wings displayed or the fighting armor. I wouldn’t need it for a pest such as himself.

“Little Lucien,” I said with wicked amusement. “Didn’t the Lady of the Autumn Court ever tell you that when a woman says no, she means it?”

“Prick,” Lucien spat and I was almost happy until he added on, “You filthy, whoring prick.” The word unleashed a snarl from deep within my chest. “What have you done, Feyre?” Lucien asked her, horrified at what he was seeing.

“Don’t come looking for me again,” Feyre breathed.

“He’ll never stop looking for you; never stop waiting for you to come home.”

Home.

There was that word again. I admitted a small trace of fear to myself as Feyre paused. Lucien snatched at his chance.

“What did he do to you? Did he take your mind and-”

“Enough,” I said with more grace than I felt. But I had to be convincing, to play my role once more. “Feyre and I are busy. Go back to your lands before I send your heads as a reminder to my old friend about what happens when Spring Court flunkies set foot in my territory.”

But Lucien didn’t budge.

“You made your point, Feyre - now come home.”

“I’m not a child playing games,” Feyre replied and I knew he’d finally overstepped with her. Feyre didn’t need to be locked up. It was why she left the Spring Court in the first place. Out here in the wild, she was her own person and Lucien had no idea how dangerous that could be for him if he forced her back towards her former self.

“Careful, Lucien,” I said with delight. “Or Feyre darling will send you back in pieces, too.”

“We are not your enemies, Feyre. Things got bad, Ianthe got out of hand, but it doesn’t mean you give up-”

“You gave up,” Feyre whispered. I felt like I had when I took her to see the Bone Carver, when she’d told him that had Tamlin not been under that third mask in Amarantha’s court, she would have killed herself after freeing us all. It broke my heart all over again.

“You gave up on me,” she continued. “You were my friend. And you picked him - picked obeying him, even when you saw what his orders and his rules did to me. Even when you saw me wasting away day by day.”

“You have no idea how volatile those first few months were,” Lucien snapped. He was angry, probably from shock, at how difficult Feyre was being. He thought this would be easy. “We needed to present a unified, obedient front, and I was supposed to be the example to which all others in our court were held.”

“You saw what was happening to me. But you were too afraid of him to truly do anything about it. I begged you. I begged you so many times to help me, to get me out of the house, even for an hour. And you left me alone, or shoved me into a room with Ianthe, or told me to stick it out.”

With a steely edge to his low voice cut sharp like the finest sword, Lucien dared his final resort. “And I suppose the Night Court is so much better?” he asked, setting my soul on fire with rage. If he did not quit after this, I would tear him limb from limb and let Tamlin see how that stood for a response.

But I didn’t have to tear him apart. All of my doubts about the Night Court not being Feyre’s home started dissipating in my mind like tiny bubbles floating away on the wind as I felt Feyre shift beside me. Her anger matched mine. Her desire to protect was my own and cauldron damn us, it raged so strong. I dared to slide my eyes away from their careful watch over Lucien to look at her and beamed with joy as she even physically mirrored me, talons appearing at her hands and wings - wings! - slipping out from between her shoulder blades on her exposed back.

And when Feyre spoke, it was darkness made manifest.

“When you spend so long trapped in the darkness, Lucien, you find that the darkness begins to stare back,” she spat. I could feel Amren next to me, nodding her approval. She was playing a part just as I had always done, keeping everyone safe - my friends, Velaris, even me - when she didn’t have to and I adored her for it.

Oh no, there was no doubt now where Feyre’s home was if ever there was any before.

I sent rapturous, wicked joy down the bond, praising her, delighting in this beautiful, bold woman before me with these wings so fierce and perfect at her back, a symbol that she would fight. I hoped she knew in that moment not just how much I approved of her actions then and there, but also just how much I admired her too.

“What did you do to yourself?” Lucien said. For the first time, he sounded defeated. The smile Feyre gave in reply was the cherry on top of a perfect cake.

“The human you knew died Under the Mountain. I have no interest in spending immortality as a High Lord’s pet.”

“Feyre-”

“Tell Tamlin,” Feyre pressed on, “if he sends anyone else into these lands, I will hunt each and every one of you down. And I will demonstrate exactly what the darkness taught me.”

For what it was worth, Lucien did look momentarily broken. He snapped back into his cold and calculating persona immediately, but for half a second, I saw the grief written in his eyes. I was struck by the sudden thought that this was costing him personally to leave here without her. That maybe just as Tamlin and I had once been friend destroyed by war and feuding, so too had Lucien and Feyre.

And then his eyes crawled over to me, disgust filling up the features on his face, and my sympathy died.. “You’re dead,” he said venomously. “You, and your entire cursed court.”

Before I could retaliate, he was gone. And Feyre was left staring miles into the distance, a hard threatening look burned into her face determined not to believe he was really gone. Her wings and talons still rippled around her. I ran a finger along the veining in her wings and she shuddered, the spell broken. Relief ran through me at the same time I was so overwhelmed just to touch her again.

Wings. My mate had made herself wings!

“How?” I gasped, stepping in front of her so that we were inches apart.

“Shape-shifting,” she said, still a little rigid. But then her eyes found mine and in the next few precious moments that passed between us, she softened. It was as if she was seeing something in me as I stared at her, trying to send all the love I felt for her through our bond, and it melted her. The wings, the talons, the tension - it all disappeared, no trace of it left in sight where my beautiful Feyre stood so close to me. I needed to touch her again.

“That was a very convincing performance,” I said, melting a little bit myself.

“I gave him what he wanted to see. We should find another spot.”

It was as if she had read my mind. Gladly, I picked her up, ready to fly her away anywhere she wanted. But even as I held her, I could feel the thoughts swarming around inside her head. It wasn’t Lucien anymore, but…

“Are you all right?” I finally asked, fear lacing my question before it was met with the soothing feeling of Feyre pressing herself firmly into my chest, cradled as close as she could nest herself.

“The fact that it was so easy, that I felt so little, upsets me more than the encounter itself,” she explained.

And all at once, we were flying and I was angry again. Angry at Lucien and Tamlin and that entire damned court for betraying Feyre so cruelly, Feyre who I now stared at as we flew further into the skies.

“I knew things were bad,” I said over the wind and rain. “But I thought Lucien, at least, would have stepped in.”

“I thought so, too,” Feyre said. She sounded so tiny and disappointed, as if realizing just how far she had come from her first days in Prythian where Tamlin was concerned. I gave her a gentle squeeze and she looked up at me back into my eyes and I couldn’t stop myself.

“You look good with wings,” I said, kissing her brow to show my sincerity and affection.

Feyre’s chest warmed as she nuzzled ever closer against me.

<3


End file.
